Early Season Racing

Perfect tracks on Saturday 

Isaiah racing the 1.4k sprint

I'll be darned, nordic racing on man made snow, who'd of thunk it!! That's just what happened over the past weekend. The SMC gang loaded up the ski gear and headed northeast to Craftsbury for a great weekend of ski racing. The Craftsbury folks put on a first class event on an 1.5 K loop that was a spectator's dream.  Well over 400 of the northeast's top nordic skiers showed up for the first Eastern Cup of the 2011/12 season.  The competion was non-stop with a 1.5 K sprint and 3K prologue on Saturday and a 4.6K and 9K skate race on Sunday.

Colin heading up the hill in the 9k

Gabby, Sam and Isaiah jump-started their seasons by racing all three events. Colin tested the waters on Sunday after missing most of the 2010/11 season. At one point as Colin ripped past several skiers through the stadium the announcer declared "St. Mikes, has a real gun this Colin Delaney kid!!"  Sam-Dan, a mid-western freshman wastreated to the fast, hard, ice typical of eastern-type skiing in the 9K skate on Sunday. Sam-Dan looked good in the climb and had a great time througout the race. Mostly he seemed happy just to see klister being applied...freshman.

Sam-Dan in his first race in Big Purple uniform

Sam and Gabby while cheering the boys on

Lary looking quite stoic.
(This post was actually published by Sam and I couldn't
let this incredible picture go unseen...)

I hung out for the weekend visiting with old freinds and watching some of the most exciting nordic ski racing I have ever seen. Cold sunny days filled with fast ski racing and no cell service. What more could I ask for?

-Lary Martell

Thanksgiving Pictures

Gabby has promised a post about Thanksgiving break and the activities that occurred. For now, check out my blog for my take on the weekend and enjoy the vague summary via pictures below.

Awkward picture of no pole work on Thursday.

Thanksgiving afternoon at Craftsbury

Lunch time.

Nap time.

Hanging with Lary

Gabby loves pictures. 

It got a little iffy Saturday morning.

By Sunday afternoon it was clear we would
be on rollerskis the next day.

High School vs. Collegiate Running

I know I sound like a broken record when I say “back in Minnesota”, but truly the difference between Minnesota and Vermont is astounding to someone who has only lived in one place all their life. So, back in Minnesota, My high school program was considered something of a joke within my conference. Our “long runs” were 40 minutes long and they were not fast by any means. We did brutal intervals starting in June and ending in November. Tapering? What’s that? We always were fast as lightning bolts in August but in October we were struggling to not place in the back half at any given meet. Our recovery days after races (Which we often had two a week) consisted of 20 min with a short “flush out” sprint afterwards. That is but a quick glimpse at a program that reduced runners to jelly by September. I arrived out here for preseason, nervous because I knew that this would push my body beyond its physical limits, ready and rarin’ to go. I was not disappointed. Day one we tackled 4 miles running at 7:30 pace (a previously unheard of practice pace for me), it was a refreshing experience for me to know that I was surrounded by people who actually cared about running for more than the six-pack it gave them. As for recovery days, it turns out those are our longest runs of the week, averaging 10-12 miles at a crack. As we say back in the North Country, “UFF DAA!!!”, this program was intense and rewarding. after getting a personal best in the 5k in an 8k my times have continued to improve. Good Work Coaches for having a killer program!!!

           

Ok, so I primarily view myself as a skier. With that thought in mind I was a bit hesitant to join the cross country team, thinking of horror stories in which runners overtrained and fried their bodies out by the time ski season rolled around. But with the cc coach being the nordic coach, I knew I was in good hands. Seeing as how Nordic Skiing is the most cardiovasculary demanding sport, any sport that worked the heart would be a good form of cross-training for skiing. However, you can’t limit yourself to just cardiovascular strength. Strength is also very important. If I had to bet on who could do more reps 225 lbs, between elite skier Petter Northug and Viking’s Running Back Adrian Peterson, all my money would be on Peter. 

-Sam H.

Sam super pumped for a roller ski a few Saturdays ago.

Post From New Skier, Sam Hammond '15

Hi my name is Sam. I’m a freshman skier from Minnesota and today on the blog I’ll be talking about Minnesota rollerskiing vs. Vermont Rollerskiing.

            Imagine one trail. It stretches for 12 miles in one direction and 9 the other. This is the only rollerskiable trail in the entire state. You ski it for 2-4 hours at a crack, every day, even twice a day. It’s flat as North Dakota and about as lonely. You get to know the trail so well you are a hundred percent sure you could do it blindfolded. The only people you see are the occasional biker or runner. They gawk at you like you have a second head or some other odd new appendage. This is Rollerskiing in Minnesota. That’s it.

            I get to Vermont and the first trail I ski on is a short art/nature trail. It’s rolling and beautiful. It’s also packed with pedestrians almost to the point of being irritating, but the sound of something other than my own labored breathing is enough to make it worth it. The trail is smooth and well kept and I already feel my training making a noticeable difference in my training and I know that rollerskiing will not be a chore like it was back home. 

SMC XC Love!

This past weekend was the Vermont State Meet at SMC. It was a gross, rainy day, but I still went out to watch with Emily, one of the new members of the team. We met up with Lar-Bear (assistant coach and my dad, Lary Martell, for those of you who are new to reading this blog and seeing our phenomenal nicknames) to watch in the wind and cold.

The first race was the women's 5k, which was extremely exciting. Our girls (the runners who are also skiers) looked really good from the beginning. Gabby and Chloe were up at the front running with two Middlebury girls. Going into the last mile through the woods loop Gabby and the two Midd girls moved ahead and were right together going into the finishing sprint. Gab kicked it in for an amazing finish and beat both girls to the finish winning the race! You can check out the article on Gab HERE and watch the video below from the SMCPurpleKnight's channel on YouTube.



We also had some boys racing with Bear and Colin finishing together and new skiers Alex, Sam, and Isaiah finishing later on. Their race was even colder to watch, but it's always fun to have a race on campus.

Check out all of the results HERE!

All in all ski training's been going pretty well for the last couple of weeks. There's only a small group of us that isn't running, but we've been getting in some good workouts. I'm sure there will be more blog posts to come as XC wraps up and we start all training together!

-Sam

Back to School

It's that time of year again. We're back in class and back together as a training group once again. We have a solid 600% increase on the men's team this year, with myself coming back from injury and four first years coming onto the team (Isiah, Alex, Sam, and Bryan). The girl's team has increased by three as well with first years Mariah, Chloe, and Emily. This fall Katlyn and Larissa are studying abroad in Ecuador and France respectively, but will be back in the winter for some EISA action.

We'll be updating on fall training as it develops, but for now we're [or at least I'm] getting back into the swing of things. It looks like it'll be a good one, as long as my ankles stay intact.

-Colin

Block M Dinner

Last Thursday was the last official ski team event of the year. We went to the Block M Dinner, which is an awards night for all of the varsity teams on campus. There are picture slide shows of each season, various awards, and senior gifts in the form of embroidered blankets. 

It was the last time all seven of us (plus coaches) will be together. Next fall it'll be much more different as Larissa's going abroad for the fall semester, Kat is going abroad for the whole year. Silke and I are the only two left at SMC who are not running cross country.

It was a fabulous event. Sadly, that is all for Big Purple during the 2010/2011 school year. Now we're all focused on trying to make it out of finals week. Summer is ALMOST here.

-Sam

Pre-dinner ski team love.

Our new hedgehog, Big Purple!
Courtesy of Silke from her trip to the Czech Republic.

Foooooood

Just clarifying...

The team.

Alpine and some nordic girls (top left)

post season blues

blues as in blue skies, we are not very sad people.

Anyways, thought we could put up a little something about the wonderful post season that we Purple Knights have been experiencing.

The most recent team workout for all of us was a trip to Ben and Jerry's (women's team bonding)

haha, but seriously, we have not given up training yet.
I personally have been doing a bit of cross training working on my rock climbing skills and kayak rolling skills. Joe happened to spot me at the rock wall last week and gave me some (useful?) tips on how to get up that ridiculous wall. Thanks.

The team as a whole has done quite a few post season races. We could be spotted both at the Trapp Family Lodge 10k on April 3rd and also at the Jericho 5 or 10k the following day. It was a warm weekend and crazy outfits were encouraged by all, sported by many. We got to test out the biathlon guns at Jericho (Silke would have been proud) and I'm happy to announce that we're all quitting the team to become biathletes. Just kidding. It was fun though.

In these past couple week individual, possibly adventurous runs seem to be the style. Everyone is quite busy with finals season upon us, yet lets not forget the wax box clean-up that needs to happen. hmmmmm?

note: Trapps is looking a little lean snow wise, but there are still some lingering drifts at the cabin along with the cutest, fattest chickadees ever so it's worth the trip.

love,

Big Purple
(and kat)

Last Carnival but WE'RE NOT DONE!

And so, just as rapidly as the race season came upon us, so it has gone. It is sad, but it must happen. There is always another year to look forward to (unless you are going abroad like me).

Anyhow, Big Purple finished with some of the best places the Knights have ever seen in nordic skiing. Though our men's team was absent from this race, the women managed to do pretty well. In fact, I'm pretty sure we (meaning Larissa, Gabby and I) had our best skate results of the season! WOOHOO. The wax was right and the mentality was right, something was right.

The next day of races proved a bit more challenging as we had to summit Mt. High-school Hill 3 times in a nice long 15k classic race. The competition was fierce and I was impressed with the UMPI girls who were skiing their first races ever that race. Go them! So much for easing into the sport.

Seeing as Black Mountain is kind of like my "home course" it was interesting racing there as a college student. I raced there countless times in high school and honestly, I don't remember high school hill being that tough. I also didn't have to do it three times in high school ha! Also, with my home being only 30 minutes away from the venue, we were able to stop by my house for dinner Saturday night. Unfortunately, we missed the banquet, but I think my mom's spaghetti was probably way better. Thanks Mom <3

And we would not have gotten through those races without the amazingly large vat of oatmeal that was made for us each morning by the owners of the Mountain Spring Inn in Andover, ME. (Larissa would not agree with me on this) But I like oatmeal.

Today was just like the season never ended however because while two of our team-mates were off racing a 5k classic at Craftsbury, Gabby and I did some intense intervals! (5x 3min. to be exact) Yay! so we can still feel like we're going fast. Our asst. coach Lary wants us all to do the Craftsbury marathon which is the current future goal. . . so those intervals should have been a little longer maybe.

Anyway, just a Big Purple update. The skiing is still good and the team is still skiing. perfect.

-Kat

Midd 2010; a.k.a. "classic skis, we don't need no stinking classic skis"

Just back from the Middlebury Carnival, a furious weekend of skate racing at Breadloaf. For the first time I can remember in my 10 years coaching, other than a couple of weekends where a race got cancelled, our league scheduled an entire weekend of a single technique, in this case skating. The way it turned out with Mother Nature I'm not complaining about that. I'm sure Lary and I would have hit the klister mix on either day (probably some yummy mix of KR60/K22N Friday, perhaps K35 covered with hardwax today), but I'm ok with not tempting fate.

Given the forecast, the trails held up surprisingly well Friday. The Rikert crew has certainly done their homework in January and February (and before that with trail prep). Although there were spots on the race course where your baskets could punch through, step 6" off the packed trail for an idea of how soft it could have been...thigh deep. The lack of sunshine and only 10 minutes of light rain kept the race course consistent for the late starters as for the early bibs, making for a fair race all around.

Bear's a blur early in Friday's race

Congrats to Gabi and Katlyn for having the best races of their college careers, so far. Every week I see somebody step up and have a good race, and it feels good to see us making progress. It may not always show up when you take a quick look at the results sheets, but when you look at "seconds/km" behind we are making measureable progress. Until you start getting in the Top 30 on a regular basis it's all about working to close that gap, which is where we're currently at.

Katlyn strong out of the gate for her best college race

Gabi with a quick early split

Today was a sprint relay, one of my favorite formats to be a spectator at. Since our league coaches decided to implement a "no top coats" wax policy for this race, other than driving the van and brushing a few skis I was mostly in spectator mode for the morning. 3 skiers per team, a ~1km loop (3:33/loop for the top women's teams, 2:53 for the top men's teams), and each skier races 3 laps (non-consecutively of course). A big thanks to Colby and Bowdoin for giving our extra skiers, Bear and Larissa, a chance to join their teams. One of the great things about the EISA circuit is the mix of competitiveness and camaraderie. When we race relays that is on display in full force. If you could have heard the roar of the crowd on that last climb, it was just awesome!

Dynamic tag zone action between Kat and Sam

Larissa heads up on the last climb of the sprint course looking for the distinctive black and white Bowdoin uniforms to tag in her teammate

Bear leads Bowdoin and Harvard skiers on the climb to the tag zone

After the relays it was back across the street to the touring center for an adaptive ski race. Patrick Standen of the Northeast Disabled Athletic Association (http://www.disabledathletics.org/) and I go way back through my other job at Vermont City Marathon. Patrick is one of the top handcycle racers in New England and a philosophy professor here at Saint Michael's. Last year we saw our first adaptive XC ski race at Rikert, and this year Colin Delaney from our team actually competed in it. Colin's still on crutches after his December crash in Lake Placid. Watching those racers climb the hills of the Battell Loop blows me away. Think about skiing up those hills; if you're skating and V2 bogs down you switch to V1 and keep going, if you're classic skiing and the hill gets too steep you switch to herringbone and run up it. In the adaptive bucket your only option is to keep pushing with your arms. Essentially, this is double poling up every hill out there.

Kudos to the dozen or so racers in the adaptive event. And kudos to the folks at Middlebury for providing this competitive outlet.



19:16 later Colin's quote after finishing the 3k was "I'm probably going to be pretty sore tomorrow"

 Also thanks to our parents, friends, and team alums for coming out...Larissa's people, Mom & Pop Sitzer, Chaz (I know you were working it but no matter you were there), Geneseo Andrew, and our melodic world travelers Josh and Claire. Your support means the world to us, so from the bottom of our hearts Thank You!!!

The SMC crew (front: Colin Delaney, Patrick Standen)(back: Katlyn Keane, Gabi Naranja, Josh Lanney, Joe Connelly, Sam Martell, Larissa Spaulding, Claire Eisenberg)(Bear and Lary were still out skiing-sorry we missed you guys!)

(posted by Joe)

Dartmouth Update from Bear

The Dartmouth Carnival wrapped up in an exciting manner this year. The girls performed their ski rendition of “Bottoms Up” to the SLU boys. They had been working on it for a few weeks and I think it came together quite well for Big Purple. Nice job girls. Check out the video of the girl’s song if you have a minute.

What was more exciting this weekend was our skiing. The girls all did well on Friday and edged out UMPI on Saturday for only the second time this season. Halfway through the season training seems to be paying off well for Saint Mike’s girls. Hopefully we keep seeing progress from all of them. This weekend turned out well for me too. I recorded two decent finishes after a tough week of training. This week should be another good week of training as well.

Early this morning Lary and I made our way to Sleep Hollow to do an interval workout. Snow conditions were slow and soft from the sun and warm temperatures making intervals more challenging. We ended up doing 3 minutes by 8 times. I was pretty beat by the end of the last interval and look forward to having tomorrow off. The girls had today off and are doing intervals tomorrow afternoon. The rest of the week is all about preparing for a freestyle weekend at Middlebury. It’s a 10 kilometer race for men and women followed by a sprint relay on Saturday which should be a lot of fun.

That’s all for now,

Bear

Great day at Sleepy yesterday. The perfect winter afternoon ski conditions.

Big Purple's rolling out for the Dartmouth carnival this afternoon. 5/10k skate tomorrow!

UVM!

Rizzle in the house again!!! Here are some awesome photos (courtesy of my mother photographing my life this weekend...) from the UVM carnival at the Trapp Family Lodge this past weekend. It was a beautiful weekend, so much sun and awesome super fans!

Here are the lovely ladies (minus Silke) of BIG PURPLE!!


Sam digs in headed up to go off on another lap of the 15K!

Kat beasts the hill

Gabby attacks

Up up up the hill!


Bear taking the corner like a pro at the mens 10K skate

The Super fans!

Overall it was an awesome weekend. The sun was out both days, though it was out in full force for Saturday! It was the first 15K of mine and Gabby's life which was interesting. For those of you whom have never raced a 15K, you should. It's an experience. Takes time to figure out how to race it, but in the end I found it to be fun. I'm looking forward to the 15K at Dartmouth next weekend! In comparison, the 5K skate on Saturday seemed like a sprint. One loop around the 5K race course and you were done!

We had a good group of cheerers come out! My entire family, old skiers Josh and Claire, Pat from the XC team, and a bunch of Sam's suitemates/friends. Big Purple definitely made some noise!

Don't forget to check out Sam's blog for some more pictures from the weekend!

Well, I'm off, got plenty of homework to do! Until next time, Poles up Poles up, Pocket full of dreams!

~Rizzle

More wildlife - Heads up for the UVM Carnival!

Following in our adventures with the porcupine earlier this week, Friday's training at Trapps on the race course gave us a close encounter with some young deer. For all you Carnival skiers coming to race next weekend, keep your eyes out between the 2.7km and 3.4km points of Morty's Maze. As Bear and I were skiing down the hill after the 3k mark, he suddenly pointed to the right, where no more than 6 feet off the trail a young deer was just sort of hanging out. Being a conscientious college ski racer out for training, he didn't stop. On the other hand, I'm a slow coach, so I'm more than happy to throw in a tele stop to check out the critters. For a couple minutes we had a stalemate. Maybe the deer was aware of the "no walking on the groomed trails" rule? A few minutes later Sam and Larissa came along at the 2.7km mark. I'm sure they wondered why I was just standing in the middle of the trail looking back up the hill. Once I tipped them off to the deer, who at that point was just starting to move across the tracks, we did a collective "check it out" for a few minutes. And then they noticed 2 more deer just 10-20 yards in front of the first one. This trio was showing no fear, as we were no more than 30-40 feet from them at times.

I'm sure the collective energy of a few hundred EISA skiers and their coaches and fans will chase the deer deeper into the woods during the races Friday and Saturday. But for those of you coming to train Thursday, if you're here late afternoon keep your eyes open and you may get your own close encounter.

Oh course, just like the porcupette, no pictures! Someone on this team needs to start training with their camera.

By the way, wanted to send a Thank You to Patrick Weaver and the UVM team for setting up the opportunity for a time trial with them yesterday on the Trapps race course. Very useful workout for our crew, hope we can do more of this in the future.

And finally, from the entire team to our assistant coach Lary Martell - Congratulations on a good race in the Craftsbury 50k yesterday.

(posted by Joe)

Colby Carnival-wax it up

Well, this is a tad (as in very) late but it will be a heroic recount of the SMC nordic team's conquest of Augusta, Maine. Stay tuned. . .

To start the weekend off we rolled up (or down a hill related to Everest) to the new ski venue Bond Brook. A preview of the course led to the discovery of a luge run at the 4k mark of the 5k loop. Thankfully for some and sadly for others after the coaches meeting the crazy downhill was ousted from the course. This turned the race loop into a 3.3k which both the women and men did three times on Friday and twice on Saturday.

The team got to stay at the luxurious Quality Inn of Augusta which boasted flat screen TV's and a complimentary continental breakfast (with Lucky Charms). We of course took advantage of that. The only problem was the waxing situation seeing as we had to set up our benches outside the hotel and it was kind of freezing. But if it's ok for the Big Green and the Ephs and the Crimson it's ok for the Purple Knights too. Also, unbeknownst to us, waxing is a spectator sport that somewhat sketchy men who stay at Quality Inns enjoy watching. Seriously, some guy was intrigued.

Friday..epic conditions for a classic race, heavy snow in Augusta most of the day...led to Bear's best collegiate finish with a 37th place out of the EISA varsity skiers.

Only 23 seconds out of NCAA points...making progress

The women's team did not see their best races this season, but Saturday brought better fortune. The races on Saturday were 6.6k skate relays and they were super fun. The course was kind of a slow 6.6k, but as Joe would say 'it was the same for everyone.' The women's team actually had the best relay finish that SMC has seen since 1999, AWESOME! Poor Larissa, however, was forced onto a team with two SLU girls at the last minute. I'm sure the girls were nice, but Larissa didn't know she was going to race until 45 minutes before, ahhh.

Larissa, Katlyn, Sam and Gabi...Looking happy after their relay

Afterwards, we watched Bear kill the hills like a champ on a team with two Harvard kids (thanks Torin & Kevin!). Nice job St. Mike's mens team. The 5 hour (approx.) ride back to SMC was full of cookies, sleep and glory. I think we can all take away a little something from this race: Joe knows how to drive up the sides of mountains.

Wednesday Night Worlds

A Sleepy Hollow tradition, so named by my original team back in 2002, Wednesday nights means Wednesday Night Worlds. Not sure if it was Mike Payne or Spencer Powlison or maybe Matt Mollo that came up with the name, but in any case we must have said it around the front desk of the lodge often enough that it's now become the semi-official name. If Eli uses the phrase, it counts! We don't get a chance to race WNW often enough due to the Carnival schedule, but with an off weekend between the Colby and UVM Carnivals, tonight was the perfect chance to have the team put on the bibs and mix it up on 3 laps of Sleepy's 2k night loop. This loop has it all-a short sharp climb, a longer easier climb ("easier" being relative), and a couple of small quick ups, plus a few flat sections that you have to work, a long easy straightaway downhill, and of course, a chance to bomb down the Tina Turner Trail with a hard left at the bottom. Great workout for sure that tests everything!

Gabi says "Not skiing in a t-shirt tonight"



Katlyn...digging in for the last V2 section before the big downhill

(posted by Joe)

Colby Weekend Pics

With not a lot of time on my hands before my next class I've decided to just throw out some fabulous pics from the weekend and send you HERE to see my thoughts on the weekend in Augusta, ME.

If you don't feel like doing a lot of reading just check these out for a visual...

Friday - Classic 10k

Bear skiing to 37th



Gabi



Larissa

Kat

Saturday - Skate 3x6k relays

Last leg of a team consisting of 2 Harvard skiers and Bear



Gabi scrambling



2nd leg - Kat

The tag

3rd leg - Sam

The 3rd leg of a relay consisting of Larissa and 2 SLU skiers.

You can find the rest of the Colby pictures along with pictures from every carnival HERE. Expertly taken by Coach joeconn.

Also, check out the Alpine Team Blog for an update on their weekend!